I applaud JK's effort to help the tracks. I am just a racer that is lucky to have a track within 15 minutes of where I live. I purchase from my local track exclusively because I want the track to stay 15 minutes from my house.

Tim has not mentioned all the added expense of dealing with hundreds of tracks instead of a handful of distributors. In manpower and shipping costs. This expense will be subtracted from his so-called windfall of hijacked profits. To accuse him of being greedy is very shortsighted, besides being rude.

Some have stated they don't see or know of distributors selling to unqualified resellers. That does not mean it does not happen. It most certainly does happen. And it has been going on for years. It takes a lot more than "Secret Shopper" tactics to uncover the practice.

I have a suggestion as far as direct sales to racers/slotters and clubs. Use the same system Parma has for online sales. You order from their website but the order goes out to participating dealers in the buyer's area. The dealer ships the order and makes the full mark-up. Of course they would need to stock some serious inventory. And commit to a full-time online sales dept. Tim could ship the items they don't stock and still kick back the 15%. Parma uses a service called Shopatron, Inc.

tonyp and JK Products like this

Sam Levitch

"If you have integrity, nothing else matters, and if you do not have integrity, nothing else matters."Robert Mueller,special council.(2013)

Hi Pablo, Don is correct. #1. The raceways have to register. #2, the racer has to pick a state that has a registered raceway in it.

If you need to order, you will have to pick another raceway for the time being. If your preferred raceway registers later, you can email me and I will change the raceway for you so they will get the commission.

It is going to be an uphill battle to get shops to register. Most don't seem to be online and I am sure the distributors will be pissed and when a shop goes to order JK they will probably say JK is out of business. It has happened before.

"And if my thought-dreams could be seen they'd probably put my head in a guillotine. But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only." - Dylan

None at all Pablo, the racer's raceway choice is kept confidential. You can pick any raceway you prefer, in any state, but you do have to pick one in order to make a purchase to guarantee the raceway you've chosen gets their 15% commission.

It is going to be an uphill battle to get shops to register. Most don't seem to be online and I am sure the distributors will be pissed and when a shop goes to order JK they will probably say JK is out of business. It has happened before.

How do they place orders, by telephone? Many companies I deal with don't even have a number you can call to place an order, as it takes too much manpower. You order online, or you don't order.

In this day and age, if you're not online, what are you really doing for your business? Damn luddites!

I'm genuinely in full agreement with John. The internet and its countless avenues for effectively free self-promotion are not recent developments. Ten years ago perhaps there was an excuse. In a day and age where 64% of Americans are smartphone owners* and as such can within a minute locate your business, directions to your business, independent reviews of your business, and links to several of your related customers there is no excuse for a lack of connectivity.

The assumption that everyone is going to be "online" is a fatal error.

Expecting active registration is really pushing it too because either the people are:

1) lazy
2) don't care
3) have some problem with what's happening
4) feel as if there's no advantage for them
5) other reasons

The real way to get people to take action is to involve them in an immediate event/prize/reward and then repeat it periodically. Immediate is the operative word.

We've seen Greg provide a raceway listing "service" for years and after conjoling, begging, announcing to track owners that it's to their benefit to list here the lukewarm response he's had. Most of the time it's the customers who gave Greg the info...

Cheater likes this

Click HERE to contact Sonic Products. The messenger feature on my Slotblog account has been disabled.

Most of the time I 'mine' Facebook and other forums for the info needed to populate the Raceway List. That's actually the main source of data, although it is true that I do sometimes get info from racers.

It's not uncommon for me to call a raceway to acquire their data and to request track pics if I can't snag them from another source like Facebook or a web page. The craziest thing is that after explaining that having track pics in the entry makes them more effective advertising, virtually every owner says, "Sure, no problem, I'll send you the track pics." However I'd bet 95+% of the raceways never follow up on their promise. Trying to keep the Raceway List accurate and current is pretty discouraging a lot of the time.

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Gregory Wells

Never forget that first place goes to the racer with the MOST laps, not the racer with the FASTEST lap

The title of this thread is " Helping the Raceways". If your local track is not listed then we who do know, should help the tracks get listed for our benefit and theirs. My local track signed up and said it was easy and very quick. They are excited with this new arrangement as am I. I gave RIR a JK Products order last night for about $70 retail to get the ball rolling. Buying JK donuts in packs of 10 through my track is a sweet bonus in for me in this new arrangement.

McMaster-Carr has phone order service as well as fax and, horror of horrors, written orders by mail.

I cannot think of any business I deal with that will not accept a phone order. For curiosity sakes, could you name one company that won't take a phone order?

I deal with McMaster Carr on an almost daily basis. They have a very high volume of business, so that's not really a fair comparison. Some of the things I buy are from companies that are very small and if they had to take phone calls they would never get anything done. Emails can be answered during a time the business owner sets aside to do that task. I don't get upset if I don't get an answer until the next day because I am aware of that fact.

And many times, even if they do have a phone number, I will email them so that they can answer at their leisure. Only if it's a real emergency do I make a phone call.

When I created my account the other day I did not select a raceway because none were listed in Georgia.I expected to be forced to select one when paying for the order, but it never came up.Did anyone get the 15%?

Eddie, this would be a very serious accusation if it were true. You did pick a raceway, Chicagoland Raceway and they did get a commission from your order. If you do want it changed, please PM me and I will do so.

I did not intend to select Chicagoland when I set up the account. I may have looked around at raceways and somehow It got selected without me realizing it. As it turns out Chicagoland is fine with me until I get an option closer to home.

No problem Eddie, I don't think that was your intent but some others reading this would sure wish it were true. I have done exactly what I said I would and while I do not send the name on the commission email the Raceways get, you can test it because whenever an order is placed, the commission notification email goes out immediately to the Raceway.

I did not intend to select Chicagoland when I set up the account. I may have looked around at raceways and somehow It got selected without me realizing it. As it turns out Chicagoland is fine with me until I get an option closer to home.

Again no accusation was intended.

Or maybe it was just set as the is the de-fault if you don't pick a store from the list.

Or maybe it was just set as the is the de-fault if you don't pick a store from the list.

No Gator, there is no default. He must have selected it and not remembered. You cannot proceed registering as a US racer without selecting a Raceway ... try it. In fact, in order to be as fair as possible, once you select a state, the raceway listing in that state is randomized, this way the first person always changes. We try to be as fair as possible (even if it does cost extra custom programming).

I just registered as an International Racer in Australia, but was not asked for a raceway, so I'm guessing that there are no Australian Raceways registered yet. What would happen to the commission for orders that I would place?

Tim, will this process work the same for international raceways, as for the U.S. raceways, and that I should get my local raceway to register?

No Gator, there is no default. He must have selected it and not remembered. You cannot proceed registering as a US racer without selecting a Raceway ... try it. In fact, in order to be as fair as possible, once you select a state, the raceway listing in that state is randomized, this way the first person always changes. We try to be as fair as possible (even if it does cost extra custom programming).

Glad to see my local signed up early.

Guess every raceway in the directory will need a call to get on board.

IMO:

For obvious reasons the buyers name should be included in the email to the track that gets the 15%.

- Direct sales buyer earns goodwill with store owner.

- Transparency

bump to Tim post #35

Ship to store:

- Your open 24/7, most stores aren't.

- Saves some shipping costs (keeps money in the hobby),

- Racer can order at 2AM because that's when he can't sleep knowing he forgot something...lol. He could even ship it to a different track he is headed to next week.

- Package could even get to the commercial store faster then a residential address.

- Heatsealed bag with packing slip inside makes it near foolproof for store owner, considered 'factory fresh' and tamperproof.

- Full margin and traffic the best way to help keep the stores open. That's the goal.

Slogan - "Ship to store they'll buy even more"

Other:

Tim,

- What is your impression of the way Parma promoted product on-line that was/is already pushed out to the stores ?